Make your own marshmallows at home & you’ll never go back to store bought Dreamy, white clouds of sugar fluff – you can’t go wrong with marshmallows. My favourite marshmallow recipe is adapted from Peter Grewling’s book “Chocolates & Confections“, and uses 5 different sugars, making it a perfect contribution…

One of nature’s amazing gifts to us, honey, is an excellent sugar for confectionery purposes. Honey is a natural invert sugar, has antibiotic properties, and has been revered for millennia for its flavour and health benefits – archaeological studies show that it has been harvested for at least 8000 years!…

Returning to our series on Liquid Sugars, it’s time to explore invert sugar! In case you missed our earlier posts on Liquid Sugars, catch up on the series introduction & Part 1. Invert sugar is a functional sugar – it is present in recipes generally to help maintain a smoother texture and…

Liquid glucose, like powdered glucose, has a ‘doctoring effect’ on your confections. That is, it prevents crystallization of sucrose, keeping the texture of your pieces smooth for longer. The benefit to using liquid glucose over solid is that it imparts a longer ‘tooth’ to your pieces – it adds an…

So, we’ve played with all kinds of solid sugars in our previous series of posts, now it is time to change our focus to liquids. There are so many kinds of liquid sugars – from the work horses of processed glucose and invert sugar to the delicate flavours of honeys…

Powdered glucose, also called dextrose, is a key tool in the chocolatier’s belt. It helps to prevent premature crystallization of ganaches, caramels and hydrocolloids such as pâte de fruits and marshmallows. While it is not used in everything, it is worth adding to recipes to see if it enhances the stability…

When I was in high school, my geography teacher was a Jamaican gentleman who brought something coconutty and delicious to our classroom every Christmas. In the intervening years I tried to recreate it to no avail, until one day in an Indian grocery I tasted jaggery, a sugar derived from…

Remember our post about Boosting Summer Chocolate Sales? Summer is fading fast, and the time between the new excitement of summer and the start of school can often see a lag in chocolate sales. Why not try a new recipe – we’ll even give you one! Key Lime Cheesecake Ganache…

Brown sugar is one of the true delights of the sugar world. It comes in many forms, including light, dark, demerara, turbinado, and muscovado. In some countries, a form called jaggery is very common, (and I’m so in love with the flavour of jaggery that I’ve given it its own post,…

Today we continue our journey into the wonderful world of sugar! Missed our first post in the series? Click here. Granulated sugar is really the workhorse of the confectionery world. Without it, we wouldn’t have delightful caramels, delectable toffees, soothing throat lozenges or smooth, sweet chocolate. While all of these…

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3 days agoby ecolechocolatJoin us in Costa Rica! . March 3 - 9, 2019 . Explore cacao cultivation, post-harvest processing & artisanal chocolate making! You’ll be guided by local experts Julio Fernandez Amon founder of the award-winning @sibuchocolate & Steve Devries. . You’ll visit cacao plantations, and experience the entire chocolate making process from tree to bar, including working with both industrial & artisanal equipment. You will gain an invaluable understanding of chocolate making & how cacao cultivation & processing impacts bean flavor & quality. . This program is only offered every other year, so don’t miss out! The deadline to register is

Bean2bonbon – About the authors

Rachel McKinley

As a chocolatier, I love the blend of science and art that results from working with our fine chocolate medium. My days are filled with creating new products, experimenting in my chocolate lab, working with my clients and customers while a the same time instructing for Ecole Chocolat programs. I find great pleasure in helping people passionate about chocolate achieve their goals and fulfill their dreams. I have a degree in microbiology and a degree in English literature, so I have a creative side and a technical side, and [chocolatiering] really married those things for me quite beautifully.

Alysha Kropf

I spent several years in the not-for-profit sector with roles in communications, marketing and program management before joining Ecole Chocolat as the Program and Marketing Director. I leaped at a role where I could combine my love of writing with my love of chocolate! Still relatively new to the world of chocolate, I have jumped in with both feet and love learning more every day. When I’m not reading about chocolate, or writing about chocolate, or eating (sorry “tasting”) chocolate, I’m chasing after one or all of my three boys, ages nine, five and five.